SEC Week 4 Big Games Preview: Favorites Win by Varying Amounts

Because of a weird couple of days -- don't ask -- I find myself in that one week where I'm running late on all the previews. Instead of trying to slap them together, here's a few thoughts on the games I haven't been able to get to yet:

Indiana Hoosiers at Missouri Tigers, 4 p.m. ET, SEC Network
Let's be blunt: Indiana is not a good football team. The Hoosiers lost by three points to Bowling Green, a team that is currently getting smoked by Wisconsin to the tune of 65-17 as of this writing. That was after they beat Indiana State by a 28-10 score, though the Hoosiers were statistically pretty dominant. And Missouri, as some of the commenters on our site keep reminding us, is a good football team. There's no reason to think that this won't be a relatively easy win for the other other Tigers. Missouri 48, Indiana 17

Northern Illinois Huskies at Arkansas Razorbacks, 7 p.m. ET, ESPNU
A year or two ago, this probably would have been a game where I went with the upset. But the Hogs have been impressive in their last couple of games, mostly recently waxing a Texas Tech team of questionable quality. Northern Illinois is still a dangerous time, dropping Northwestern and grinding out an eye-popping 325.3 yards a game that should allow them to keep this one relatively close. But Arkansas finally looks like it's ready to start once again winning the games that it should win, and a match-up with a MAC opponent falls into that category. Arkansas 34, Northern Illinois 20

Mississippi St. Bulldogs at LSU Tigers, 7 p.m. ET, ESPN
Don't put me in the "Mississippi State always loses to LSU so they're going to lose this game" camp, or into the "this is the year that Mississippi State finally gets the victory over LSU" camp. I do believe that Dan Mullen needs to upset one of the Big Three in the SEC West this year if he's going to do it during his time in Starkville; generally, we've seen all we're going to see out of a college football head coach by the end of his sixth season. And I think this game is going to a nail-biter, but LSU comes out on the top in the end. LSU 24, Mississippi State 19

South Carolina Gamecocks at Vanderbilt Commodores, 7:30 p.m. ET, SEC Network
South Carolina doesn't play well in Nashville. In 11 trips to face the Commodores at Vanderbilt since joining the SEC for football in 1992, the Gamecocks have won just three games by more than two scores. They've also lost a couple of trips to Nashville, including a 24-17 defeat in 2008 that helped send the Commodores bowling. Yes, Vanderbilt is a terrible "football team" this year that has earned scare quotes around that term. But South Carolina is due for a letdown game after the huge win against Georgia and they're going into a stadium that has been a trap in the past. They'll win, but it won't be pretty. South Carolina 21, Vanderbilt 10